Heard the World
by emmylouuwho
Summary: When Becker is injured by a creature, it's up to the rest of the team to look after him - whether he likes it or not.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** So this idea came to me after watching an episode of the Glades where they talk about a bug that sprays mucus in your eyes and blinds you for two days. (Yes, this is the kind of TV I watch with my roommate) I was immediately like, well hello there plot device! Some necessary angst, but hope to have humor too. Enjoy!

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><p>It was the last office on that floor, and Becker had just been thinking that it would be nice if all alerts were this easy. He should have known better. Even thinking something like that was tempting fate.<p>

Becker peered around the doorway, EMD at the ready. He entered the darkened office slowly, checking behind the desk. Finding nothing, he turned back toward the elevator at the opposite end of the hall.

A shuffling noise inside the office gave him pause. He turned, gripping his weapon. The noise seemed to be coming from underneath the desk. Becker crouched down cautiously, shining the light attached to his EMD into the shadows. He barely got a look at the creature - just a flash of green and grey scales - before it reared back, spraying some sort of mucus.

Becker's eyes felt like they were on fire. Not just his eyes, his whole face was burning. Dropping his weapon, Becker clutched his face, toppling backwards as he lost his balance. A metallic thunk sounded and a pain in his skull competed with the fire in his eyes.

"_Becker? Have you finished the third floor sweep?"_ Matt's voice drifted hazily across his mind. Matt's Irish accented speech somehow morphed into Jess' voice._ "Becker? Do you copy? Becker?"_ And then he was unconscious.

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><p>"Is Becker going to be okay?" Jess asked as she walked into the medical bay, keeping her voice low.<p>

The rest of the team, already inside, all turned at the sound of her approach. Jess found herself focusing on odd details. Connor's grimace as a nurse dabbed at a cut across his cheek. Abby's white-knuckled grip on Connor's knee while sitting beside him on the gurney. Emily still holding an EMD. Matt's unreadable expression, arms crossed over his chest. And the curtain that currently separated Connor's bed and the next one, the one where Becker lay.

It had been a fairly simple alert - a small anomaly in an office building downtown. Jess had triggered the fire alarm inside the building and Matt, Becker, and the rest of the soldiers checked all the floors for stragglers and possible creatures while Abby and Connor locked the anomaly.

While checking one of the offices, Becker was surprised by a small reptile that sprayed some sort of venom into his face. When Matt found him, Becker was unconscious, and several more of the creatures were further down the hall.

At least no one else was hurt, apart from minor cuts and bruises. They'd managed to send all the creatures - small iguana-like reptiles that Connor thought were from the future - through the anomaly before it closed. But with Becker injured and concealed by that blue wall of fabric, Jess was having a difficult time remaining positive.

"They've rinsed out all the venom from his eyes and face, and he doesn't seem to have a concussion from the fall," Matt said.

Connor muttered something about Becker's thick skull finally coming in handy, but an elbow to the ribs from Abby quieted him. Jess could tell that Matt wasn't telling her everything. The man may have been an enigma before, but the revelation about his origins seemed to have somehow made it marginally easier to read his generally unexpressive face. He was avoiding her gaze, and she noticed Emily gripping the EMD in her hands tighter, as though prepared to shoot any member of the medical staff who dared to provide any of her friends with sub-par medical care.

"What aren't you telling me?" Jess asked, looking anxiously from one slightly guilty expression to the next.

"It's his eyes," Abby said finally. "The venom the creature excreted seems to have blinded him. They think that it's just temporary, but they're not sure. They don't have any experience with this particular creature's venom."

At that moment, while Jess was still staring at Abby in shock, the doctor drew back the curtain surrounding Becker, then closed it again after exiting. Dr. Owens was a middle-aged man with greying brown hair and a kind expression; Jess often thought he looked like someone's grandfather. At the moment though, Jess didn't spare a thought on him other than to wonder what he was doing to fix Becker.

While the doctor began a serious conversation with Matt in hushed tones, Jess ventured over to where Becker lay, twitching aside the curtain. They had dimmed the lights in this part of the medical bay, for Becker's benefit. He was so still, she could almost believe he was sleeping, his uniform and tac vest still in place, one hand on his chest the other at his side, his breathing even. He looked peaceful, until her eyes came to rest on his face, where the skin was a mottled red, swollen around the eyes, which were closed.

Becker spoke, startling her. "Hey, Jess."

Jess smiled despite herself at his light tone. "How did you know it was me?"

"My ears still work fine, and you have very distinctive sounding footwear."

She moved closer to the bed, her hands clutched tightly together in front of her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, biting her lip at how childish that sounded.

"Not too bad, considering."

Jess found the lack of teasing or sarcasm in his tone more than a little discomforting. She looked down to see she'd been twisting the fabric of the medical bay's sheets between her fingers. Her hands were close enough to Becker's where it lay on the bed at his side that she could feel his body heat.


	2. Chapter 2

The head doctor of the medical bay, Dr. Owens, approached Matt, and was attempting to update him on Becker's condition. It took Matt a few seconds to focus, he was haunted by the pale, disbelieving look on Jess' face when Abby told her about Becker. He hadn't even been able to tell her himself. He was the only one, as far as he knew about Jess and Becker, that only last night they'd kissed. That each of them walked away grinning like idiots.

After waiting so long for Becker to wise up, Matt didn't want to have to be the one to deliver such horrible news, even if it was only temporary. It _was_ temporary, it had to be. He turned to Dr. Owens, beginning to take in what he was being told.

"... going to need someone to look after him until then. And he should stay somewhere familiar, preferably his own home, where he knows the layout."

"Okay," Matt said, nodding. "One of us will stay with him. Thanks, doc."

They would take care of their own.

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><p>She released the bedsheets, leaving a crumpled patch next to Becker's elbow. On impulse, Jess reached for his hand, squeezing it. She was surprised when he returned the squeeze, holding on. Spying a rolling stool off to one side, she hooked her foot around it and rolled it toward herself. Still gripping Becker's hand, she perched on the stool, elbows resting on the edge of the bed. Jess leaned her cheek against the back of Becker's hand in hers.<p>

Becker released her hand, and Jess stood. She supposed she should leave. She turned to leave, then felt a restraining hand on her arm.

"Stay."

His voice was quiet and insistent, and so raw with emotion, that that one word tore through Jess' heart. The hand on her arm moved upward as she sat back down. His fingertips brushed her lips, the slope of her nose, until it reached her cheek. He cupped her cheek in his hand, thumb smoothing across her cheekbone. His skin was rough and calloused, and yet soft and gentle, hand and cheek fitting together like two pieces of a puzzle.

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><p><em>This isn't permanent,<em> Connor reminded himself. _It couldn't be. This is Action Man we're talking about._ He was invincible. When the rest of the team had been killed or disappeared, Becker was the lone survivor, the one constant. This couldn't be how his career at the ARC ended. Granted, in Connor's mind, that was preferable to being a dinosaur's lunch. He had a feeling, however, that in Becker's twisted duty-defined brain, this was worse, much worse. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, Becker was left feeling useless. _Temporarily_, he reminded himself yet again.

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><p>When Jess disappeared behind the curtain surrounding Becker's hospital bed, Abby breathed a small sigh of relief. She hated seeing that horrified look in the younger woman's eyes. And the situation was definitely going to get worse before it got better. She'd overheard bits and pieces of Matt's conversation with the doctor, and she knew already that Becker would need looking after until his sight returned. From the determined set of Matt's mouth, she could tell the team would be the ones taking care of him. Which was how it should be. They took care of their own at the ARC.<p>

That didn't change the fact that Becker was a stubborn, ornery bastard who would not make this easy for any of them. He was the worst invalid. He fought every mandatory medical leave after an injury, and the concept of a sick day seemed completely foreign to him. This was not going to be pleasant.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> There will be less of the angst and more humor later. Promise!


	3. Chapter 3

Matt motioned the others into the hall outside the medical bay. Emily leaned the EMD she'd been holding against the wall, and now stood with a comforting arm around Jess, who now had her arms wrapped protectively about herself. Abby stood on Matt's other side, arms crossed, while Connor was at her side and slightly behind with a hand on her lower back.

"The doctor says he needs to stay here overnight," Matt said, keeping his voice low. "For observation. After that, they'll let him go home. But someone will have to stay with him."

"I'll do it," Jess volunteered immediately. Her voice was small, but her chin rose defiantly as she met Matt's eye.

"We'll all take turns staying with him," Matt said, smirking a little at Jess' fierce expression, as though daring anyone to tease her about her concern for the injured soldier.

"He's not going to like this," Abby muttered, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"That's not up to him, is it?" Lester said, walking up to the cluster of people outside the medical bay. He nodded to Matt, and continued on, pushing open one of the doors.

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><p>The lab tests of the creature's venom and Becker's bloodwork showed no signs of any other side effects, physical or psychological. Which, as Connor so aptly put it, meant he wasn't likely to start hallucinating, turn into a man-eating monster, or develop superpowers. Abby smiled to herself as she remembered how disappointed he's seemed about that last part.<p>

So after being kept at the ARC medical bay overnight for observation, Becker was released and Matt and Abby drove him home. He'd rather grudgingly allowed the others to make plans to stay with him - mostly due to the fact that Lester made it an order - but he didn't want anyone missing work, so they would only stay overnight. He'd insisted he didn't need to be babysat all day, and could manage perfectly well.

While Matt brought up his duffel and an armful of groceries, Abby took Becker's arm, guiding him up the stairs, into the flat, and onto the sofa. She looked around, thinking to pick up anything he was likely to trip over off the floor, but that proved unnecessary. To Abby, who granted had been living with Connor for the better part of five years, his entire flat seemed inhumanly tidy, not to mention spartan in its furnishings. In the end, she settled for making sure there were clear paths between the sofa and bedroom, bathroom, kitchen.

Abby turned back to Becker, realizing she'd been neglecting him a bit, to see he'd visibly relaxed since they entered his home. He was on familiar ground. _He'll probably be more relaxed once we've gone_, Abby thought with a smirk. Matt emptied the grocery bags into the refrigerator and set Becker's duffel inside his bedroom door.

"Okay mate, there's sandwiches in the fridge, second shelf on the far right. Soda cans on the far left," Matt said briskly, heading for the door.

"No alcohol, and your meds are in the bathroom," Abby said, patting his arm and trying to ignore the ache in her gut at seeing her friend so helpless. _God, I sound like his mother._ Abby and Matt left Becker still sitting silently on his sofa in the middle of his flat.

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><p>He spent most of the first day sleeping. He didn't get much sleep on the unfamiliar cot in the medical bay the previous night. The harsh fabric of the sheets under his cheek was a constant reminder that he wasn't alright. So Becker was in and out of consciousness throughout the day, both in his bed and on the sofa.<p>

The doctor had bandaged his eyes, both to prevent infection and to block out light from his overly sensitized corneas. They'd also given him a watch for the blind that, when one pressed a button, said the time aloud in an unsettling computerized voice. Becker didn't check it often, except to make sure he took the antihistamines and other drugs the doctor insisted he take on time. Though he did wonder where they got it; but apparently, medics at a government facility that fought dinosaurs on a regular basis really were prepared for anything.

The other reason behind Becker's lethargy was boredom, pure and simple. He had absolutely nothing to do. Any activity he did in his spare time required his sight. He couldn't even watch television, something he rarely did normally. He tried, but turned it off after only a few minutes. Not being able to see the screen was too frustrating, too much of a reminder of his situation.

Becker was dozing on the sofa, feet propped on the armrest, when he was woken by the sound of Matt entering, using the spare key that was to be passed between his various babysitters over the next week.


End file.
